On Tuesday I visited a local middle school to talk about my career in computer science and some of the cool experiences I’ve had as a result. This took the form of five one-hour talks in front of different 8th grade math classes. This got me thinking: why did my school bring in such terrible speakers? Why was there never a better message than “try not to share dirty needles under an overpass?” With John’s help, we went over some of the ridiculous talks we sat through and some of their unintended results.

With the awkward assemblies of our youth pushed safely back down to our subconscious, we turned to the evening’s real topic for discussion: controversial games. We’ve been around longer than many industry journalists at this point, and I think we experienced some important developments in the weirder side of gaming’s history. Before the show, we each agreed to pick out a couple of sketchy games we played along the way, and reflect on whether or not their negative buzz was deserved. This turned out to be timely, as Epic was just revealing their plan for a store of their own, meant to compete with Steam, with whom almost every game developer and player alive has beef. Plenty of those players have taken issue with the content allowed in the store.

As always, the best way to keep up with us is to subscribe to the show. Tell a friend about us and consider leaving a rating and review to help us get the word out. Also check out code.org if you think you might be able to help kids and teachers learn about basic code concepts and experience some of the magic of what we do. I can promise you a fun and very rewarding experience.